LaLiga fixtures September 20 and 21 2026 - the Madrid derby, then a 19 day gap to October 10

Atletico Madrid have 13 points. Real Madrid have 15. They meet in Madrid on Sunday, and it is the only match this week with a top four clinch figure on both sides of it. A home win puts Atletico on 16 and above both clubs currently on 15, Real Madrid and Real Betis. An away win puts Real Madrid on 18 and alone in second. After that match and four others, the upcoming fixture list in our feed carries nothing at all until October 10.

Every figure here is as of the September 20 update. Two of that day's matches are already counted: Barcelona won 3-1 at Sevilla, and Celta Vigo beat Racing Santander 5-0 at home. The derby and Getafe against Malaga are listed as upcoming, so neither is in any number below, and nothing here treats them as played. This is not a preview of form. It is what each of the five results does to a stored figure.

Start with what the derby can and cannot move. The four clubs currently holding Champions League places each carry a clinch figure for a top four finish: Barcelona 85 further points, Real Madrid 91, Betis 91, Atletico 93. Add each figure to its club's current total and the answer is the same every time. Barcelona 21 plus 85 is 106. Real Madrid 15 plus 91 is 106. Betis 15 plus 91 is 106. Atletico 13 plus 93 is 106. There is one bar, at 106 points, and the four figures are only the four different distances to it. The bar belongs to Sevilla. A top four place is guaranteed once no four other clubs can still finish above you, so line the other nineteen up by the maximum each can still reach and read off the fourth name. For all four of them that name is Sevilla, who have 13 points and 31 matches left, for a ceiling of exactly 106. Sevilla are not playing this weekend, so the bar cannot move this weekend. Only the distances to it can.

While the bar holds, this is what a result is worth in that currency. A win takes three points off a clinch figure, a draw takes one, a defeat takes none. If Atletico win the derby, their 93 becomes 90 and Real Madrid's 91 does not move. If Real Madrid win, their 91 becomes 88 and Atletico's 93 does not move. A draw leaves Atletico on 92 and Real Madrid on 90. Barcelona, who have already played, end the weekend on 85 whatever happens.

Monday's fixture at the top of the table works one way at one end of it and another way at the other. Deportivo La Coruna, seventh on nine points from two wins, three draws and one defeat, host Betis. A Betis win takes them to 18 and their clinch figure from 91 to 88, the same place Real Madrid land if they win the derby. Deportivo have no clinch figure at all, because nothing they can do on their own yet guarantees a top four place, and what they carry instead is a tragic number of 31 against 32 matches left. Neither kind of figure falls in only one way. A clinch figure falls when the club takes points, and also when the clubs setting its bar drop them. A tragic number falls when the club loses, and also when the clubs already above its ceiling bank points. That second route is live this weekend for clubs with no match at all: if Atletico beat Real Madrid, Alaves go from a tragic number of 31 to 30 without kicking a ball, and Sevilla, also idle, pick up a tragic number of 31 where they currently have none.

The other three fixtures sit at the far end of the table, where the stored figure is a safety clinch, the points that guarantee a finish outside the bottom three. Sunday's other match is Getafe against Malaga, 17th hosting 20th. Getafe carry 95, and a win takes that to 92 while lifting them from five points to eight. Malaga carry no safety figure at all. They and Elche are the only two clubs whose own results cannot yet guarantee survival, and what Malaga hold instead is a relegation tragic number of 32 against 32 matches left, which a defeat here would make 31 against 31. Malaga are also the only club in the division without a win, with three draws and three defeats from six, and they lost 3-1 at home to Villarreal on September 18. A first win takes them to six points and past the four clubs on five. Getafe lost 1-0 at Betis on September 18.

Monday brings three. Valencia, 19th on four points, host Real Sociedad, 13th on seven. A Valencia win draws the two level on seven and takes Valencia's safety figure from 96 to 93. A defeat removes that figure altogether, as Malaga's already is, and leaves a relegation tragic number of 31 against 31 matches. Then Villarreal host Levante, the weekend's only meeting of two clubs level on points, both on five. Both carry the same safety figure of 95, but Villarreal have to find it in the 96 still available to them and Levante in 99, because Levante have played five matches, fewer than anyone else, and have 33 left, more than anyone else. Same number, different denominator. A Villarreal win takes their 95 to 92; a Levante win takes theirs to 91.

Then the board freezes. After Monday the upcoming list jumps to October 10, a gap of 19 days, and every route by which one of these figures falls needs somebody to play. Whatever the numbers read on Monday night, they read the same on October 9. The reachable rank range for every one of the twenty clubs still runs from first to twentieth, and that will still be true then. The first three October 10 fixtures in our feed are Malaga hosting Espanyol, Alaves hosting Atletico Madrid, and Rayo Vallecano hosting Athletic Club. That is Malaga's next look at a first win after Getafe, against a club on seven points. Alaves are sixth on 11, two points behind Sevilla, the club immediately outside today's top four, and Atletico arrive with whatever the derby leaves them, either 90 or 92 or 93 points from a guaranteed place. Rayo and Athletic are both on eight and separated in our table only by goal difference, minus five against plus one. Those are the first results in 19 days that can move anything at all.

How to read these numbers. In a points league, a clinch or magic number is the minimum number of further points that guarantees an outcome even if every rival wins every remaining match, which is why the figures are so large in September. A tragic number is the number of further defeats after which the outcome is impossible even if the club takes everything else on offer. A rank range is the highest and lowest final position still arithmetically reachable. A rival whose ceiling only equals your total is not counted above you, so our clinch can run a day ahead of an official announcement, and level clubs are ordered by goal difference and then goals scored. The full table and every club's figures are on the league page, the remaining fixtures at, the qualification and relegation rules at, and you can push any of these five results through the table yourself at. Club pages work like for Atletico.